Punctuation – The ENGL 1010 Student's Guide to the Essays (2024)

Punctuation—periods, commas, colons, semicolons, all that jazz—might seem like a little thing,[1] but each point and mark says something to the reader and helps them understand how your ideas are assembled and organized. When you don’t use them correctly, you send all the wrong signals to your readers and make it harder for them to make it through your writing. However, when they are used correctly, punctuation marks fade into the background and nearly disappear as your reader focuses on what you have to say. So, let’s make sure we’re on the same page with the basic punctuation rules.

The period, also called a “full stop” in other countries, is the most common punctuation mark used in written English. It has a number of uses, including some rare ones, but since it’s the most basic one to understand, we’ll start here.

Declarative sentences and commands

Whenever you finish a declarative sentence, you put a period after the last word. A declarative sentence is one that states information for the reader. Commands also end with a period.

Examples

The Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal is incredibly daft but very, very ravenous.

Don’t panic.

If your sentence directly asks a question, don’t use a period; use a question mark instead.

Example

What is the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything?

A sentence with an indirect question still ends in a period, though.

Example

Arthur asked if they had any tea.

When you want to add some emotion, excitement, or emphasis to a statement, use an exclamation point instead of a period. Consider the difference between these two sentences:

Examples

Marvin is taking them to the bridge.

Marvin is taking them to the bridge!

While the first sentence is simply relaying information, the second has some added element of emotion. Perhaps the speaker is surprised that Marvin is taking them to the bridge instead of some other, more expected destination, or maybe the speaker is surprised that Marvin was given the job instead of someone else.

Abbreviations and initials

There is a decent amount of variation in the use of periods with abbreviations and initials, so you’ll want to make sure you consult the specific style guides that apply to your writing situation, but these are the most common uses. Whenever you shorten a word, you place a period after the abbreviation.

Examples

I did not vote for Pres. Beeblebrox.

You can find the info. you need by typing in the search bar.

Other terms that are frequently abbreviated need a period after them. Dates that are shortened, such as months (e.g., Aug. or Dec.) or days (e.g., Wed. or Fri.), need a period. When a name is replaced by just an initial, it should also have a period after it, no matter which name is being shortened (e.g., Michael B. Jordan, J. J. Abrams, or J. R. R. Tolkien). However, when a person or a company is regularly referred to entirely by their initials, the periods are typically omitted (e.g., MLK, FBI, or CIA).

A lot of students get to this point of their education without ever getting much explicit teaching or training on how to use a comma. Comments I have heard from students over the years have shown that there’s a lot of misinformation out there about commas. I’ve heard that commas indicate where you should pause in a sentence[2] or that they join things together in your sentences. However, the real function of a comma is to separate elements within a sentence, so let’s take a look at a number of basic uses of commas.

After an introductory phrase or clause

Any time you start a sentence with something other than the person or thing doing the action,[3] you need a comma after that thing to tell the reader that the introduction is over and the main part of the sentence is beginning.

Examples

In his satchel, Ford Prefect always carried his towel.

After Ford put the Babel fish in Arthur’s ear, Arthur was able to understand the Vogon captain’s announcement.

Next, he tried to get a cup of tea from the ship’s Nutrimatic.

It really doesn’t matter what kind of thing you start your sentence with. It could be a word, a phrase, or an entire subordinate clause, but if it’s not the subject, you always[4] need a comma when you’re ready to start the main clause of the sentence.

Between independent clauses

When you want to join two independent clauses together in your sentence, you need to use a coordinating conjunction to show how those ideas are related. There aren’t that many coordinating conjunctions in English, and there’s really only four you need to know: and, but, or, and so. The others—for, yet, and nor—don’t get used all that often anymore, but luckily, if you take the first letter of all of them, they spell the word “FANBOYS,” which is a nifty little mnemonic device you can use to remember them all. When you use one of these conjunctions to join two clauses together, you also need to use a comma before the conjunction.

Examples

Zaphod stole the Heart of Gold, and he and his friends used it to find Magrathea.

Arthur was rescued from the Earth before it was destroyed, but he had no idea how to cope with the rest of the galaxy.

One way to determine whether you need the comma before conjunctions like “and” or “or” that are also commonly used to join other kinds of things together is to check and make sure that the words before the conjunction form a complete sentence and that the words after the conjunction also form a complete sentence. If they do, you are joining independent clauses together, and you need to have a comma before the conjunction.

Between items in a series

Grammatically, a series is three or more things listed one after the other. For example, if I say that I really like ice cream, cookies, and chocolate, then those three sweets would form a list. When you write a series, you use a comma to separate each of the items in that list. It doesn’t matter what those three things are, really. They could be nouns, verbs, prepositions, phrases, or even clauses[5]—if there are three or more of them, then you need commas between each of them, just like I did at the beginning of this sentence.

Examples

Many people enjoy hiking, biking, and swimming during the summer.

The only native survivors of the destruction of the earth were Arthur, Trillian, a pair of white mice, and all the dolphins[6], of course.

If it’s possible for you to imagine a disagreement about writing so big that it results in a giant gang fight with crusty old academics, editors, and other writing professionals hurling flaming books at each other and getting all shivvy with sharpened pens, then you should absolutely imagine that they are fighting about one of these commas. The very last comma in a series—the one that goes right before the “and”—is called the Oxford comma.[7]

One side of this divide maintains that the Oxford comma should always be used at the end of a series of things, while the other side says that the first side is stupid and wasting a lot of space and ink by putting in commas that don’t need to be there because the conjunction makes it clear that you’ve reached the end of the list.[8] Here are a couple of examples of a series, first with the Oxford comma and then without it:

Examples

Arthur Dent, Fenchurch, and Marvin trudged across the red desert.

Arthur Dent, Fenchurch and Marvin trudged across the red desert.

There’s not much of a difference there, right? Most of the time, there isn’t. However, there are some times when the omission of the comma—or the use of the same—can cause some ambiguity and confusion. In this next example, how many people[9] did Arthur chat with, four or two?

Without an Oxford comma, it looks like he chatted with two mice that are named Slartibartfast and Ford. If you put in an Oxford comma, it’s clear that he is chatting with four distinct individuals: two white mice whose names we don’t know, a man named Slartibartfast,[10] and his friend Ford.

Example with the Oxford comma

Arthur chatted with two mice, Slartibartfast, and Ford.

There are also times when using the Oxford comma can produce similar amounts of ambiguity and confusion. In the following example, how many people did Arthur travel with?

Example with Oxford comma

Arthur went to Magrathea with Trillian, a robot, and a guide.

How many did you count? With the Oxford comma in place, Arthur could be traveling with either three people—a woman named Trillian, a robot without a name, and a guide who is also unnamed—or two people, one of whom is a robot. If we leave out the Oxford comma, things become even more complicated, because now, Arthur might also be traveling with just one companion named Trillian who is both a robot and a guide.

Example without Oxford comma

Arthur went to Magrathea with Trillian, a robot and a guide.

This is why people have been fighting about this for over a century, and that is also why this is my new favorite quote on the subject: “There are people who embrace the Oxford comma, and people who don’t, and I’ll just say this: never get between these people when drink has been taken.”[11]

So, there’s lots of disagreement over this, and lots of people with very passionate opinions saying lots of nasty things about the lots of people with equally passionate opinions about the other thing, but here’s the good news: none of their opinions matter. You can decide to use or to skip the Oxford comma as much as you want in your personal writing, but when it comes to academic writing, you don’t get to choose.[12] Your academic writing will always have a specific style that it needs to follow, and that style will dictate whether you’re supposed to use the Oxford comma or not. In the case of MLA and APA styles, they both require that you use it, so there you go. No need to do the research to figure out which side is best[13] because other people have already decided what you have to do.

Around nonrestrictive clauses and phrases

Sometimes, when you write, you need to add extra information to a noun so that people know who you’re talking about. For example, I have three brothers. If I say, “I called my brother yesterday,” you won’t know who I’m talking about, so I need to add some extra details to that sentence to make it clear which brother I’m referring to: “I called my brother David yesterday.” In this case, the word “David” restricts which of my brothers I could be talking about, which is why that particular detail is considered restrictive.

If we can use restrictive information in our writing, then we can also use nonrestrictive information. These are extra details that are not necessary for determining who we’re talking about, and so, really, they could be ignored and the meaning of the sentence would not change. For another example, I have exactly one son, so I could write, “My son got his driver’s license this week,” and you would know who I’m talking about. Alternatively, I could add a little more detail to the sentence if I wanted and say, “My son, Hyrum, got his driver’s license this week.” Now, you don’t actually need to know his name in order to know which of my one sons I’m referring to, and so that detail does not restrict which son I’m talking about, which is why it’s called nonrestrictive information. I could remove his name from the sentence and you’d still be able to know who the new driver on the streets is.

In the examples above, adding my brother’s or my son’s name to the sentence renames the nouns “my brother” and “my son” for the reader, so their names are being used as an appositive,[14] but that’s not the only kind of nonrestrictive information you can include. Noun phrases and clauses can also be both restrictive and nonrestrictive.

Examples

The planet which we are currently orbiting holds a vast collection of ancient galactic wealth.

Magrathea, the planet which we are currently orbiting, holds a vast collection of ancient galactic wealth.

In the first example, “the planet” does not adequately identify which planet we are referring to, so when we add the adjective clause “which we are currently orbiting” to that noun, it restricts which of all the planets we could possibly be referring to, so it is restrictive. In the second example, since we already have the name of the planet, the noun phrase “the planet which we are currently orbiting” does not restrict which planet we are talking about—the name does that all by itself—so it is nonrestrictive.

How does this apply to commas? When you include nonrestrictive information in a sentence, you surround it with commas. This separates it from the rest of the sentence and shows the reader that it isn’t strictly necessary. Nonrestrictive information can be removed from the sentence without changing the meaning of the original. Here are some additional examples:

Examples

Marvin, the Paranoid Android, brought the two hitchhikers to the bridge.

It’s a widely known fact that humans, who believed themselves to be the smartest creatures on the planet, were actually only the third most intelligent species.

These examples use nonrestrictive phrases and clauses to provide additional but unnecessary details for the reader to expand on what they are saying. We don’t need to know that Marvin is a Paranoid Android in order to know who the writer is referring to because the robot’s name gives us enough information already. Similarly, we don’t need to know that humans believed themselves the smartest creatures on the planet in order to know which humans the writer is referring to. In both cases, because the information is nonrestrictive, it is surrounded by commas.

Examples

The giant computer that was tasked with calculating the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything was named Deep Thought.

The man who was tasked with knocking Arthur’s house down had no idea how to deal with Arthur lying in the mud in front of his bulldozers.

In these two examples, the additional details provided are needed in order to identify the writer’s reference. In the first, we don’t know which giant computer the writer is referring to until we get the details about how it was tasked with determining the Answer, and it is unclear which man is being discussed until we read what his assignment was. In both of these cases, there are no commas around the extra information because it was restrictive.[15]

With direct address

When your writing includes conversation, there may be the need for one person to speak directly to another. In this case, whenever one person directly addresses the other, you separate the name from the rest of the sentence with a comma.

Examples

Ford, you’re turning into a penguin. Stop it.

Bring the aliens to the bridge, Marvin.

Calm down, Zaphod, and have a drink.

Arthur pressed buttons on the guide.

In the first three examples, the names are being used to directly address those characters, and as such, they are separated from the rest of the sentence by commas. In the last example, Arthur is not being directly addressed. Instead, he is the subject of the sentence, so no commas are used.

With direct quotation

When directly quoting someone in your writing, if you include the name of the speaker and a verb of speech, then you separate that from the rest of the quote with commas.

Examples

Deep Thought said, “The answer is 42.”

“The answer,” Deep Thought said, “is 42.”

“The answer is 42,” Deep Thought said.

With numbers, titles, dates, and addresses

When writing numbers 1000 or greater, you typically use a comma every three digits. Numbers that are four digits long can be written both with or without the comma.

Examples

7,000 (or 7000)

42,000

3,000,000

If you include someone’s title or credentials after their name, separate them using commas.

Example

Please send invitations to Sally Myers, M.D., and Benny Ramirez, Esquire, by Friday.

When you include a full date in your writing, separate the year using commas.

Example

Towel Day was first celebrated on May 25, 2001, in honor of Douglas Adams.

If you write a full address in your text, separate each element of the address (number and street, city, state and ZIP) except for the ZIP code using commas.

Example

The main address for the university is 225 S University Ave., St. George, UT 84770.

A lot of students get to this point in their education thinking that they already know everything that there is to know about using quotation marks,[16] but it’s still useful to review all of the ways to use quotation marks to make sure you’ve got it all straight.

To directly quote someone’s writing

This is the most basic use of the quotation mark in academic writing. If you want to use someone else’s writing in your essay, you must enclose their words in quotation marks. This tells the reader that what you are giving them is an exact reproduction[17] of what the other author wrote. This is typically accompanied by a citation of some kind that helps the reader find the information that will lead them to the actual source you took the words from.

Examples

The Encyclopedia Galactica has this to say about alcohol: “Alcohol is a colorless volatile liquid formed by the fermentation of sugars.”

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy also mentions alcohol. It explains that the best drink in the galaxy is the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, lists the effects of drinking one, and notes which voluntary organizations exist to help you rehabilitate afterwards. It also provides instructions should you wish to mix one yourself. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy sells rather better than the Encyclopedia Galactica.

Note that, in the second example, no quotation marks are used because the author merely summarizes what the Guide says instead of quoting it directly.

To write speech

Whenever you wish to write down what someone said or is saying, you need to enclose their words in quotation marks.

Examples

“Time is an illusion,” Ford said. “Lunchtime doubly so.”

“Well,” said Halfrunt brightly, “Zaphod’s just this guy, you know?”

If you want to represent someone’s thoughts in writing, you have a choice. Some writers will use quotation marks and a verb of thinking to represent thoughts, while others will use italics to represent thoughts instead of quotation marks.

Examples

“Now there’s a hoopy frood who really knows where his towel is,” Ford thought.

Now there’s a hoopy frood who really knows where his towel is, Ford thought.

To name short works

Whenever you mention the name of a short published work, you need to enclose the title of that work in quotation marks. Short works include poems, songs, essays, articles, and chapters—basically, any work that is part of a larger volume should be written in quotation marks. The name of the larger, entire volume[18] should be written in italics.

Example

In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the entry titled “Earth” was revised from its original text, “Harmless,” thanks to Ford’s 15 years of research. It now reads, “Mostly harmless.”

To use a word sarcastically, ironically, or skeptically

This is a somewhat uncommon use of quotation marks, but it’s also kind of a fun one. When you want to imply that the word you’re using doesn’t really mean what people think it means, you enclose that word in quotation marks. Here’s an example:

Example

Under no circumstances should you ever allow a Vogon to read any “poetry” to you.

In this example, the quotation marks around the word “poetry” indicate that the writer is using it in a very different way from the normal meaning of the word. Here, the suggestion is that the Vogon poetry is nothing like any normal poetry, which people tend to find interesting and enjoyable.

This use of quotation marks has a fun name: scare quotes.[19] The marks themselves serve to show the reader that the author is creating some distance between what the word or phrase means and how they’re using it. They kind of suggest that the word does not mean what it actually means. They are actually the origin of the “air quotes” gesture that people do when talking when they’re wanting to put some sarcastic meaning on the word.

This might seem like an easy usage of the marks, but it’s one that people making signs get wrong all the time, so it’s definitely worth reviewing. Here’s another example, but this one shows what you should not put on a sign:

Bad example

For sale “apples” 2 for $1

Remember what scare quotes do to a word: they tell the reader that the word within the quotes does not hold the usual meaning. So, what are these “apples” that they are selling, and just how scared of them should we be? Because they’re definitely not apples—they’re “apples.”[20]

To talk about words

If you want to talk about a word instead of using the word’s actual meaning, you should enclose the word in quotation marks. You can also do this to talk about a single letter or a phrase.

Example

Within the last couple of decades, we have been able to see the meaning of the word “literally” shift to include literally the exact opposite of what it used to mean.

To separate a nickname from a full name

Whenever you want to write a person’s nickname along with their full name, the nickname should be enclosed in quotation marks.

Example

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will be reprising Maui, the character he voiced in the animated film Moana, in the live-action version.

The colon is a useful little punctuation mark that can be placed at the end of a sentence to let the reader know that more is coming. You might look at them as a punctuation mark that says, “That thing I just mentioned? Let me tell you more about it.” Here’s a list of the common uses of the colon:

To introduce lists, examples, or explanations

There are times when, in one of your sentences, you might mention something that needs an explanation, an example, or additional information. At the end of that sentence, put a colon to tell the reader that you’re going to provide them with an explanation, an example, or a list that clarifies what you said earlier.

Example

Ford had a number of things in his satchel that would make any human physicist’s eyes pop out of their heads: a Sub-Etha Sens-O-Matic, an Electronic Thumb, and, of course, his copy of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

In this example, the writer mentions “a number of things” in the sentence but doesn’t say what they are. The colon at the end of the sentence tells the reader that more information is coming that will explain or expand on what was said before. What comes after the colon, then, must provide the explanation or expansion that was promised.

To introduce a quote

Earlier, we looked at introducing a quote using the speaker’s name and a verb of speech, followed by a comma. Another way to introduce a quote is to use a colon just like you would to introduce a list.

Example

Arthur glanced at the Guide and decided he really liked what it said on the cover: “Don’t Panic.”

With certain numbers

There are a couple of types of numbers that need colons in them to be correctly written: times and ratios.

Examples

All of the trouble began at 11:45 p.m.

The Vogons had them outnumbered at least 30:1.

Between titles and subtitles

Some titles are a bit long. Some are even longer than that. And some have subtitles, which are a kind of secondary title that goes under[21] the main title on the cover. When you write a title that has a subtitle, you put a colon between the main title and the subtitle.

Example

The version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy that I refer to when looking for quotes to use in this textbook is published in a large volume that contains all five books in the Hitchhiker’s trilogy.[22] The full title of the large volume is The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Five Novels and One Story.

The semicolon is a poor little punctuation mark that is misunderstood and frequently misused. Some people even make fun of it without ever really trying to understand it. There are only a couple of very specific ways to use a semicolon, and really, if you wanted to, you could avoid using one for your entire life. However, if you’d like to get to know this sleek little mark and when you can toss one into your writing, here is when to do it.

To join two closely-related independent clauses

An independent clause is, as we’ve discussed, basically a sentence that is complete and can stand on its own. When you have two independent clauses that express ideas that are closely related to each other, you can join them together using a semicolon.

Example

Zaphod was sure they were orbiting the legendary planet Magrathea; Ford insisted it was just some random, dead planet.

Here, the semicolon shows the reader that the second idea is closely related to the first. Using a period instead of a semicolon feels a little too divisive, separating them with a hard stop before the next idea begins. You definitely can’t use a comma here because that would create a comma splice,[23] where one complete sentence is connected to another complete sentence with just a comma,[24] and you also wouldn’t want to use a coordinating conjunction[25] here, either, because you need to put a comma before one of those, not a semicolon.

However, you can use a semicolon before a conjunctive adverb,[26] such as “however,” “nevertheless,” “moreover,” or “also.” In the previous example, we could’ve used “however” between the two clauses, like this:

Example

Zaphod was sure they were orbiting the legendary planet Magrathea; however, Ford insisted it was just some random, dead planet.

After a semicolon, use a lowercase letter unless, of course, the word requires a capital letter, like someone’s name, a day of the week, or a place.

To join items in a list that have their own punctuation

As we discussed earlier, when you write a series of three or more items in a list, you separate those items with commas. However, if an item in the list has a comma that is a part of that item, then you can use semicolons to separate the items in the list to remove any confusion or ambiguity.

Example

Ford was faced with a number of immediate challenges: he had to get Arthur to stop lying in the mud; he had to convince him to drink three pints of beer, which was to cushion his system against the matter transference beam; and he had to convince him to leave the planet.

In this example, the second item in the list included a comma. If we had used commas to separate the three items in that list, then the comma in the second item might have been misinterpreted by the reader as splitting the second item into two separate items. So, to keep things clear and unambiguous, we use semicolons to separate list items that have their own commas in them. Here’s one more example:

One more example

The International Olympic Committee received bids for the 2030 Winter Olympics from cities such as Salt Lake City, Utah; Barcelona and Zaragoza, Spain; Vancouver, Canada; and Sapporo, Japan.

Because each city needed a comma before its corresponding state or country, semicolons were used to separate the individual items in the list of cities.

The ellipsis is more commonly known as, well, the “dot dot dot.” The three periods, separated by spaces in most major writing styles, are collectively called an “ellipsis.”[27] It has one major use in academic writing and a very different use in more informal or conversational writing, so let’s make sure we’ve got it straight.

To show that something has been omitted from a direct quote

In academic writing, when you use someone else’s words in your text, you might not need to use every word that they wrote. It’s perfectly acceptable to leave out the part that doesn’t relate to your readers, but you still need to tell them that you left a part of the original words out. That’s what an ellipsis does.

Example

Original text: It is also the story of a book, a book called The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – not an Earth book, never published on Earth, and until the terrible catastrophe occurred, never seen or heard of by any Earthman.

Student text: The prologue of the story introduces the reader to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which is “not an Earth book, never published on Earth, and . . . never seen or heard of by any Earthman” (Adams 5).

In this example, the student wanted to use the description of the Guide, but the original text also mentions a terrible catastrophe that doesn’t make sense in the student’s writing. To avoid confusing the reader, the author removed that reference and replaced it with an ellipsis.

One thing to keep in mind with an ellipsis is that, if you remove a complete sentence from the original quote, you need to make sure you end the sentence before the omission with a period before inserting the ellipsis. It ends up looking like there are four periods together instead of three, but the first period is actually just the end of the previous sentence. Here’s what that can look like:

Example

Original text: First of all I see from our instruments that we have a couple of hitchhikers aboard. Hello, wherever you are. I just want to make it totally clear that you are not at all welcome. I worked hard to get where I am today, and I didn’t become captain of a Vogon constructor ship simply so I could turn it into a taxi service for a load of degenerate freeloaders. I have sent out a search party, and as soon as they find you I will put you off the ship. If you’re very lucky I might read you some of my poetry first.

Student text: The Vogon captain made it quite clear in his ship-wide announcement how he felt about hitchhikers. “I just want to make it totally clear that you are not at all welcome. . . . I have sent out a search party, and as soon as they find you I will put you off the ship. If you’re very lucky I might read you some of my poetry first” (Adams 41).

The sentence that was removed from the original text didn’t really relate to the student’s writing, so it was cut out. The sentence before the omission had ended, so a period was used, but then an ellipsis was inserted to show the reader that a portion of the original text had been removed.

When you remove text from a quote and replace it with an ellipsis, it’s important that you make sure that the text that is left makes sense grammatically and does not change the meaning of the original. For example, the following is an example of what not to do with an ellipsis:

Bad example

Original text: Vogons are absolutely the worst beings in the galaxy. They think being bureaucratic, bad tempered, and callous is the best.

Student text: Douglas Adams made up many alien races, such as the Vogons, who he describes as “absolutely the . . . best.”

Here, the student clearly butchered the original author’s meaning and intention. The original text describes the Vogons in entirely negative terms, but the student’s quote makes it sound like he was a fan of them because of the way that the original text was cut up and because of what was left out. Don’t do this—it represents a serious breach of academic integrity along with a serious lack of reading comprehension.

To indicate a pause or an unfinished thought

In conversational or informal writing, writers often use an ellipsis when someone pauses during a conversation or to show that they trailed off and didn’t finish their thought.

Examples

“This is definitely it, Arthur,” Ford said, “except . . . What’s that?!”

“To be continued . . . “

It can also be inserted at the beginning of a piece of dialogue to indicate that the conversation had been going on previously and that the reader was just joining in and would need to figure it out on the fly.

Example

“ . . . and if all these attempts fail, flag down a passing flying saucer and explain that it’s vitally important you get away before your phone bill arrives.”

Just one final reminder—this is a more informal or conversational use of the ellipsis. If you’re writing a more formal or academic paper, stick to the previous usage to avoid any possible confusion.

  1. And let’s face it, they are just a bunch of little things.
  2. Sentences that you write are not usually meant to be read aloud, so this doesn’t make sense.
  3. In other words, when you start with anything other than the subject.
  4. Okay, not technically always, but the times when you don’t use a comma are so relatively few that if you remember that the rule says “always,” you’ll almost always be right. Almost.
  5. There’s a bit of an extremely rare but possible exception here…we’ll get to that later with semicolons.
  6. You’re welcome for all the fish.
  7. Mostly because it was first mentioned as a required element of writing in a printing guide produced to govern the Oxford University Press in 1905. It’s also called the serial comma.
  8. Those idiots…
  9. Just go with it.
  10. His name’s not important.
  11. Page 84, Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, Gotham Books, 2004.
  12. Isn’t that great?! One less thing you need to think about in your life! Wahoo!
  13. The Oxford comma side is the best. Seriously. Just use it. You’ll be just like all the cool kids if you do.
  14. A noun or noun phrase that renames a previously stated noun.
  15. Necessary for the identification of the noun reference.
  16. And they’re mostly right.
  17. When it’s not an exact reproduction, you must mark it as such so that the reader knows they’re not getting exactly what the other author wrote. There are rules governing how to do this, and you must follow them to avoid plagiarism or other forms of academic dishonesty.
  18. Such as a book of poetry, an album, a collection of essays, a magazine or newspaper, or a book.
  19. They’re also called “shudder quotes,” “sneer quotes,” and “quibble marks.” See? Fun!
  20. Yikes.
  21. “Sub,” amirite?!
  22. Have you caught it yet?
  23. We talked about these. Please tell me you know that we’ve already talked about these.
  24. Remember that a comma is a punctuation mark that separates, not joins.
  25. “And,” “but,” “or,” and “so” are the most common coordinating conjunctions.
  26. Also called “transitions.”
  27. “Ellipses” is the plural form, similar to one “parenthesis” and two “parentheses.”
Punctuation – The ENGL 1010 Student's Guide to the Essays (2024)
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